Rob Gronkowski, Venus Williams, James Corden join Laker Girls - Los Angeles Times
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Rob Gronkowski, Venus Williams and James Corden dance with Laker Girls. How’d they do?

Rob Gronkowski, James Corden and Venus Williams join the Laker Girls for a halftime routine Tuesday at Staples Center.

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So now we know why Rob Gronkowski won’t be returning to the New England Patriots this season. He’s too busy dancing with the Laker Girls.

At least that’s what it looked like Tuesday night as the retired tight end, tennis star Venus Williams, TV host James Corden and comedian Ian Karmel joined the cheerleading squad for a halftime dance routine during the Lakers’ 112-107 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder at Staples Center.

All this happened hours after Gronk told ESPN that his NFL retirement is going to last at least one season, even though the 9-1 Patriots aren’t scoring enough points to satisfy buddy Tom Brady.

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Karmel later revealed on Twitter that the dance sequences were being filmed for the upcoming CBS show “Game On,” a remake of the Corden-hosted British game show “A League of Their Own.” On the U.S. version, Gronkowski and Williams will lead two teams in various sports-related challenges.

Assuming the Laker Girls routine was one of those challenges, let’s see if we can figure out who won. Karmel appeared to be on Williams’ team, and they were up first.

Venus Williams and Ian Karmel perform with the Laker Girls

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Williams does an admirable job keeping up with the professional dancers, while Karmel does some comedic improvising before also falling in nicely with the routine (which was set to “Stay” by Zedd and Alessia Cara). They both seem to struggle a bit near the end but recover nicely for an overall solid performance.

Next up, Gronkowski and Corden.

More early improvising here. Gronk goes with smoky eyes and high kicks while Corden licks his fingers and grinds his hips. But they fall in nicely with the Laker Girls once the chorus kicks in. Gronk completely loses his place near the end, even worse than Williams and Karmel did. Corden handles this portion of the routine better than the rest.

So who won? Gotta go with Team Venus. Corden and Williams both turned in strong outings, but Gronkowski seemed to drag his team down.

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“Still deciding if I’m a proud girlfriend over this,” Camille Kostek, a former New England Patriots cheerleader, said in an Instagram post featuring a video of Gronkowski’s performance.

Maybe Gronk should reconsider the whole returning-to-the-Patriots thing after all — it doesn’t look like he’s Laker Girls material.

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